Nightmares
by Lolita Toxica
Summary: How accurate is a nightmare? What are you willing to lose to save those around you? Post Ex-Machina.


_**Nightmares**_

_**A/N:**_ Nope, I don't own _Get Ed_. This was written in May 19-21, 2008.

_**Really, don't ask me about this story. I don't remember.**_ _**Wow... this was taking dust in my computer and never posted it... Might as well fix some stuff while I'm at it! The reason I never posted it was because this was a one-shot chapter for **_**What If?**_**, a series of one-shots I was going to liberate once I finished **_**Growth Spurt**_** (wow... another old story; I'm feeling nostalgia and embarrassment at the same time), but because of school work and my digital art practice, was never released to the public. Now that I've returned with **_**Get Ed**_** nostalgia, I'll post the chapters separately as one-shots so that my profile doesn't look so empty after I delete some of my old unfinished dead stories. XD**_

* * *

_His worst fear had come true. Everyone was dead. His friends were in a blood bath. His teacher had disappeared. The city was in complete ruins. And it was his entire fault!_

"N-No… No. No!"

The eldest's eyes opened tiredly. He was somehow awaiting his friend's yell. He jumped out of his bed, only in a black shirt and black baggy pants, and walked out of his room.

_Knock!_ He crashed his fist with his neighbor's bedroom door. The annoying snoring stopped and scuffling soon started.

He passed two doors.

_Knock!_ He knocked on the last door. A young girl opened the door; she had already heard the first knock from far away. She rubbed her sleepy green eyes and looked at her leader. She came to her senses when she saw him and walked behind him. She wore a burned purple shirt and red shorts.

_Knock!_ He knocked on the girl's neighbor's door. An older girl came out; she wore a pink nightgown. She rubbed her eyes and then looked sharply at her leader. _'You didn't need to knock that hard.'_

Ignoring her glare, he turned to the last door he had to knock. Next to the door was another teenager with a puppet, dressed in green pajamas.

_He could see a young man's face. His eyes were cold—he had no emotions. "Between all of this, your greatest fear will now and forever be me!" He pointed his right arm at him. His fingers curled into place and a gun appeared in his hands—ready to shoot at will._

"No!" he gasped in his sleep.

_Knock! Knock-knock!_

"Ed, wake up!" Burn shouted as he continued to knock at the door.

Ed woke up from his nightmare and gasped for a few seconds.

The crew knew it was their cue to enter his room. They all looked up at his bed.

"So the nightmare happened to you too?" Fizz asked with a little fear lined with her voice.

"Yeah…" Ed sighed. "Now I know what you guys have been talking about this whole week."

"Just be glad it's all over now," said Deets as she walked closer to his bed.

"For now, you mean." All eyes turned to Burn. His eyes were closed in thought and his arms were crossed on his chest. "If that guy is real, it means that he's out there planning Progress City's destruction. He's using our fears so we—"

"_Our_ fears? Didn't you say you weren't afraid of anything?" Deets smirked at the seventeen-year-old courier.

"Everyone has fears, Deets. You couldn't have believed me."

"So you were scared yesterday, weren't you?" she joked.

He laughed sarcastically. "Very funny," he said as he rolled his eyes. Burn shook his head in annoyance and turned to Ed. "What was your nightmare anyway?"

"You didn't bother to tell us yours. Why should I?" protested Ed.

"It's better that way." The eldest courier's eyes looked sharply at the courier. "Now tell!"

"Well, Progress City was in ruins. Worse than it is now. Everyone in the city was dead… including you guys. The only ones alive were that guy and me and he was about to kill me with a gun he can create out of nowhere."

"Hope that wasn't a vision," Loogie said as he looked at Dr. Pinch. "It would hurt me to see Dr. Pinch dead, even with all the fights…"

"Arguments," the puppet continued.

"And arm pulling." He grinned.

"That guy was attacking us from what he thought was the weakest to the strongest," Fizz said as she looked at the door. She still could not believe they were still living in the Dojo, even after it was burned down by Bedlam. The structure itself survived, but burned and broken and the items inside were not in good shape. "Me, Loogie, Deets, yesterday Burn and now Ed. There's a pattern he's following."

Deets hated to see that Fizz had somewhat scolded herself by calling herself the weakest of the Dojo and looked at her with concerned eyes.

The girl had understood. "I did say "he thought"," she said shyly trying to persuade the girl to follow what she was trying to explain other than the self-scold.

"The destruction was just the beginning, I guess." Ed looked at his friends. "Don't worry about me. I'm fine. You guys can go back to bed now."

"B-But—" Deets was interrupted by two hands, one on her shoulder and one grabbing her hand.

"Let's go, Deets," Burn said to her as he pulled her away from the room.

"Let it go, Deets. We all know everything's gonna be fine. Trust us." Fizz pulled her hand.

"G'night, Ed!" Loogie and Dr. Pinch exclaimed as they all left his room and closed it right after.

"He won't let it go!" Deets whispered irritably at the two couriers who were pulling her away. "He will fight this guy and won't tell us."

"We know," Burn said to her as he and Fizz let her go of their grasps.

"I never said "trust him"..." Fizz looked down at the floor in disappointment and left to her room. "Good night."

When the redhead had finally entered her room, the three eldest couriers turned to each other. Burn was the first to speak. "There's gonna be some rough changes 'round here."

* * *

"_Can't you see? I've done a better job destroying Progress City and Dojo than you would ever have!"_

"Who are you?" Bedlam shouted irritably in his sleep. He was floating in darkness... in the vastness of a dark abyss. Chunks of metal flew around them—broken pieces of the once-great Machine.

_He had no reply._

Progress City was in complete ruins, blazing in a great ball of fire. Bedlam had watched this young man battle Ed and while they battled, destroyed the rest of the city. The members of the Dojo were all covered in blood—dead.

"Let us out. This isn't real! You know it!" yelled Ol' Skool in his sleep. He, like Bedlam, floated in the infinite abyss.

"_So what? It'll be real once I attack."_

"And when will that be?"

"_Sooner than you think."_


End file.
